In the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union Elections, the United Left coalition, consisting of AISA, DSF, SFI, and AISF, swept three out of four central panel positions, including president, vice president, and joint secretary. BAPSA emerged victorious in the general secretary race, with the RSS-affiliated ABVP securing the runner-up position across all positions.
United Left’s Dhananjay clinched the presidency with 2590 votes, surpassing ABVP’s Umesh Chandra Ajmeera, who garnered 1676 votes. Following this victory, Dhananjay became the first Dalit president of JNUSU from the Left since Batti Lal Bairwa in 1996-97, declared the left organizations on campus.
Avijit Ghosh, United Left’s candidate for Vice President, secured victory with 2409 votes, defeating Deepika Sharma from ABVP, who received 1482 votes.
BAPSA’s Priyanshi Arya achieved a landslide victory in the general secretary position with 2887 votes, marking the highest tally in this election. ABVP’s Arjun Anand trailed with 1961 votes.
In the race for Joint Secretary, Mo Sajid of the Left Front emerged victorious with 2574 votes, while ABVP’s Govind Dangi received 2066 votes.
Nineteen candidates were vying for positions on the JNUSU central panel and 42 for school counsellors, with eight contenders in fray for the role of president.
The Central panel consists of president, vice president, joint secretary and general secretary.
The United Left comprising the All India Students’ Association (AISA), Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF), Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and the All India Students’ Federation (AISF) fielded Dhananjay for the president’s post, Avijit Ghosh for vice president, and Mh Sajid for Joint Secretary. The nomination of Swati Singh for General Secretary from the Left panel was cancelled by the Election Committee late Thursday night after it was challenged with the varsity’s Grievance Redressal Cell (GRC) by ABVP, according to PTI.
Swati later sat on a hunger strike demanding re-election and re-nomination for the post of general secretary. She alleged that the election committee informed her about the cancellation of her nomination late at night, a few hours before the commencement of the polling through WhatsApp.
Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA)’s contenders for Central Panel were Biswajit Minji for president, MD Anas A for vice president, Priyanshi Arya for joint secretary and Rupak Kumar Singh for general secretary.
From the Congress’s student wing, NSUI, Junaid Raza was running for president and Farheen Zaidi for general secretary while ABVP fielded Umesh Chandra Ajmeera for president, Deepika Sharma for Vice President, Arjun Anand for Secretary and Govind Daangi for Joint Secretary.
Samajwadi Chatra Sabha’s presidential candidate was the only female contender for president’s post.
Fraternity Movement, which contested two posts, won the councillor seat for the School of Language, Literature, and Cultural Studies (SLL&CS).
The JNUSU polls on Friday witnessed a voter turnout of 73 per cent, highest in the last 12 years, according to a comparison from previous years’ data, PTI reported.
The elections were held in two phases, which were delayed due to logistical arrangements, the election committee said.
The polling was held after a four-year hiatus and over 7,700 registered electors cast their votes through a secret ballot.
